Determining Weight Values for Storage Devices in a Storage Tier to Use to Select One of the Storage Devices to Use as a Target Storage to Which Data from a Source Storage Is Migrated

1. A computer program product for migrating data from a source storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising: querying each of the storage devices, to determine dynamic parameter values based on operational states of the storage devices related to at least one of condition of hardware components of the storage devices, measured performance, and sensed environmental measurements; determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device, wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors; determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the determined dynamic parameter values of the storage device indicating a health of the storage device and the vendor value for the storage device, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors; receiving a request to migrate data from a source storage comprising one of the storage devices in a source storage tier to a target storage tier in a multi-tier storage system; determining storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier; and using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier to select one of the storage devices in the target storage tier to which data from the source storage is migrated.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the vendor value comprises static parameter values indicating vendor supplied information on manufactured characteristics of the storage devices.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the vendor supplied information on the manufactured characteristics of the storage devices includes at least one of a mean time between failure, read/write performance, availability, and durability, and wherein dynamic parameters comprising at least one of a errors encountered, temperature, and data throughput, and wherein the dynamic parameter values based on operational states of the storage devices related to at least one of condition of hardware components of the storage devices, measured performance, and sensed environmental measurements includes a t least one of position of hardware components, remapped sectors, internally detected errors, error correction codes, error counts indicating a number of errors encountered, detected operational times, temperature of the storage devices, data throughput, humidity, and number of times written.

4. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the static parameter values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the function provides a dynamic weight and a static weight, wherein the function applies the dynamic weight to the aggregate dynamic parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the static weight to the aggregate static parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate static parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the weighted aggregate static parameter value.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the storage devices are identified in at least a first tier and a second tier based on characteristics of the storage devices, wherein the first and second tiers have different parameters, wherein the dynamic parameter values for storage devices within one of the first and second tiers are capable of comprising different values, and wherein the source storage is in the first tier and wherein a target storage device to which data is migrated is selected from one of the storage devices identified as in the second tier.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the first tier comprises solid state storage devices and wherein the second tier comprises hard disk drives.

8. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the using the storage device weight values to select one of the storage devices to which data is migrated comprises: determining that multiple of the storage devices are deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values; and using an administrative policy to select one of the determined multiple storage devices deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values to which data is migrated.

9. A system for migrating data from a first storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, comprising: a processor; and computer readable storage medium having code executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising querying each of the storage devices, to determine dynamic parameter values based on operational states of the storage devices related to at least one of condition of hardware components of the storage devices, measured performance, and sensed environmental measurements; determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors; determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the determined dynamic parameter values of the storage device indicating a health of the storage device and the vendor value for the storage device, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors receiving a request to migrate data from a source storage comprising one of the storage devices in a source storage tier to a target storage tier in a multi-tier storage system; determining storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier; and using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier to select one of the storage devices in the target storage tier to which data from the source storage is migrated.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the vendor value comprises static parameter values indicating vendor supplied information on manufactured characteristics of the storage devices.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the static parameter values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the function provides a dynamic weight and a static weight, wherein the function applies the dynamic weight to the aggregate dynamic parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the static weight to the aggregate static parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate static parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the weighted aggregate static parameter value.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the using the storage device weight values to select one of the storage devices to which data is migrated comprises: determining that multiple of the storage devices are deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values; and using an administrative policy to select one of the determined multiple storage devices deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values to which data is migrated.

14. A method for migrating data from a source storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, comprising: querying each of the storage devices, to determine dynamic parameter values based on operational states of the storage devices related to at least one of condition of hardware components of the storage devices, measured performance, and sensed environmental measurements; determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device, wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors; determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the determined dynamic parameter values of the storage device indicating a health of the storage device and the vendor value for the storage device, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors; receiving a request to migrate data from a source storage comprising one of the storage devices in a source storage tier to a target storage tier in a multi-tier storage system; determining storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier; and using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices in the target storage tier to select one of the storage devices in the target storage tier to which data from the source storage is migrated.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the vendor value comprises static parameter values indicating vendor supplied information on manufactured characteristics of the storage devices.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the static parameter values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the function provides a dynamic weight and a static weight, wherein the function applies the dynamic weight to the aggregate dynamic parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the static weight to the aggregate static parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate static parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the weighted aggregate static parameter value.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the using the storage device weight values to select one of the storage devices to which data is migrated comprises: determining that multiple of the storage devices are deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values; and using an administrative policy to select one of the determined multiple storage devices deemed to have equivalent storage device weight values to which data is migrated.